The NHL’s dog days of the off summer are right around the corner. General Manager Pierre Dorion still has some work to do as he’ll need to look at either trading Alex DeBrincat, or roll the dice on a 1 year deal for 2023-24. He also still has to sign a few RFA’s and will have to meet with scouts to evaluate the team’s prospects at development camp this week.
With Joonas Korpisalo inking a 5-year contract on Saturday, the goaltending situation is set for the foreseeable future, and the defense seems to be locked in as well. Erik Brannstrom and Jacob Bernard-Docker reupped with the Sens this past weekend, so the team now has six 1-way contracts on the backend. Keep an eye out for Travis Hamonic, as it feels like he might be coming back, but much like fans, is waiting to see how the DeBrincat situation turns out first. How much cap space the club has remaining after resolving that aspect of their roster will likely dictate that outcome.
But on the forward side of things, there’s still a lot of work to do beyond the DeBrincat deal. There’s 8 spots locked up for next year, but that’s not nearly enough for a roster that lacked depth scoring this past season. With Ottawa now on player’s radars more nowadays, it’s not unrealistic to think about free agents wanting to play in the nation’s capital. So, with that, let’s take a look at 5 UFAs Pierre Dorion can target for the forward core.
Adam Erne
For the 2023-24 season, it’s more important than ever for Dorion to find value signings. And Erne feels like one of those players that might end up signing a very cheap contract in the mid-late summer. Not only that, but his contract value shouldn’t be overly high right now.
Erne is a 28-year-old winger that can play on both sides and provide some depth scoring. As a bottom six player in Detroit this year, he put up 18 points in 61 games. He outscored most of the Red Wings bottom 6 players this past season on a team where many of them barely hit 10 points. Erne also has a physical element to his game, which should fit well DJ Smith’s system. His 11.76 hits/60 rate was first on the Red Wings this past season.
The reason why his value might be low right now is he was assigned to the AHL for a brief period and he passed through waivers unclaimed. However, Erne had a $2.1M contract that was paying him $2.4M in real money. With plenty of NHL clubs desperate for cap space, it didn’t make sense to pay a player $2.4M to skate on the fourth line. But on a 1-year deal at around $1M this season, I could see that happening he feels like a natural fit with the Senators.
Josh Leivo
This is a player that has been in the NHL grind for years. Leivo, who just turned 30 this past May, has scored at a decent pace his entire NHL career. But he’s only played in 265 NHL games, dating back to when he made his NHL debut in 2013-14. His 51 games this season was the most he’s played for a singular team in a season throughout his career.
He’s been through the ringer; he’s had injury issues and has always been a player that has been a 13th forward. But his 2022-23 season was quite solid, putting up 16 points in 51 games for the St. Louis Blues. Leivo is also responsible defensively; he had 2.96/60 takeaways for the Blues, which was first on the team, beating even former Selke winner Ryan O’Reilly. He also had 0.98/60 giveaways, which was one of the better rates on the roster as well. While no longer the trustworthy stat it used to be, Leivo still had an even +/- rating on the year. And being on a team filled with players sporting up to -38 marks for the year, that’s not nothing.
He’s not the prototypical DJ Smith style player but could have great value if he’s signed for under a million dollars for the season. Smith should have some familiarity with Leivo dating back to his Leafs days from 2016-19 when the two were in Toronto. Leivo could be an efficient bottom six scorer that won’t hurt your team at even strength in limited minutes. He could eat up some of Austin Watson’s minutes on a team friendly deal.
Noah Gregor
24-year-old Gregor went unqualified by the San Jose Sharks just last week, making him an early UFA. This is also a player that’s an efficient bottom six forward. In 57 games this year, Gregor put up 17 points including 10 goals. Gregor is a 6-foot winger who has a good offensive toolkit and has had to make an adjustment from WHL scorer to bottom six grinder in the NHL. On a not-so-great team in San Jose, he was 7th in shots on goal at just around 12 minutes a night. It seems as though Sharks GM Mike Grier won’t bring him back, so why not take a shot on a 24-year-old player with a bit of upside?
Gregor is also a former WHL champion back in 2019. One of his teammates from that season? Parker Kelly. If Kelly can win back a 4th line spot, a line of Kelly-Kastelic-Gregor could make sense going into next season.
Oskar Sundqvist
Out of anyone on this list, Sundqvist would probably come at the largest cost. But he feels like a prototypical Ottawa Senator. With the Red Wings and then on the Wild post trade deadline, he was a bottom six right winger that played on both special teams units.
For a team that prides itself on special teams like Ottawa, Sundqvist can sub in whenever there’s an injury, providing some lineup flexibility in the process. He also has an offensive touch, putting up 28 points in 67 games. He stands 6 foot 3 and has a bit of a physical element to his game, which would fit in on a 3rd or 4th line for DJ Smith. A fourth line of Smejkal-Kastelic-Sundqvist would be a tough line for opponents to handle with all of the players listed as 6 foot 3 or taller.
Zack MacEwen
Another candidate to possibly replace Austin Watson this season. With Watson not being brought back, it seems like the Senators are still looking for some toughness upfront. 26-year-old Zack MacEwen is currently sitting without a contract and has been one of the tougher guys around the league the past couple of years. His offense is obviously nothing spectacular, but his role is to go out for 8 minutes a night and make life uncomfortable for the opposition. His 10 points in 56 games isn’t great but could be worse for a player not seeing a lot of ice time.
I don’t think he’d be an everyday NHL player, but I think he’d be a matchup player to go in every game whenever the Senators are playing against an opponent that may target players like Tim Stutzle. MacEwen would definitely come in at under $1M, so an affordable contract could help round out a roster that could use a bit of sandpaper going forward.
-Damian Smith
Twitter: @Damian__Smith
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.